Year-Round Evaluation of Urban Heat Island Mitigation and Its Effects on Energy Consumption by Urban Greening using Deciduous Trees

Abstract

This study quantified the mitigation effect of deciduous trees on an urban heat island and its effects on energy consumption for air-conditioning and water heating in metropolitan Tokyo. Numerical simulations of urban heat island are conducted by application of Colorado State University Meso-scale Model (CSUMM) for two cases: one is a case of actual condition and the other is a case of urban greening. Next, we estimated the energy consumption for space heating, cooling, and water heating corresponding to each of the temperature distributions. The results imply that heat island mitigation by urban greening can reduce energy consumption up to 1260 TJ/year.